Weyerbacher Insanity

Brewed by Weyerbacher Brewing Co.
Style: Barley Wine
Easton, Pennsylvania USA

From a 12 oz. bottle with no bottling or freshness date, allowed to warm a bit before sampling in a snifter. Poured a nice lightly orange hued brown with a creamy, bubbly topped pale tan head, good retention, small amount of sticking. As soon as I started pouring I could smell the fruity esters, a mix of figs and dates drenched in port wine, woody oak and vanilla, a light amount of spice and brown sugar, and whiffs of fusel alcohol. Good moderate carbonation and a crisp, dryish, sipping smooth full bodied mouthfeel. Pleasant barley wine taste, figs, dates and bourbon, caramel and cocoa, brown sugar sweet, vanilla and barrel wood, earthy hops, spicy fusel alcohol that warms the palate, and a dry port, sweet fruity finish. An easy sipper, quite tasty on a chilly spring night.

22 oz. bottle. Pours a hazy reddish brown with a large off-white head. I thought the aroma of caramel, malt and alcohol was fairly light. These qualities were thankfully much stronger in the flavor. Caramel was especially in the forefront. The bourbon flavor becomes more pronounced as the beer warms a bit. Pleasant mouthfeel that feels like it coats your mouth. Pretty heavy alcohol burn at the finish.

The description says it all. Tasted like, shocker!, Blithering Idiot aged in a barrel. The barrel aging really mellow some of the bitterness and added some vanilla and softer notes. The heat from the alcohol is kicked up a little bit.

my mistake for buying ths one. It didn’t say bourbon cask - it said OAK cask. I don’t like bourbon flavored beer. Bourbon is bourbon and beer is beer. That being said - this is still a decent beer, just not one I’d ever buy again.

Pours ruby-hued dark amber with a small beige head. Strong aroma of dark fermenting fruit, a bit of caramel, and a strong note of vinous alcohol like cognac. Strong fruity, caramel flavor, with strong, semi-sweet vinous alcohol, and a very light hint of oak in the finish. Palate is medium, dry, and warming, with slight lingering alcohol. Overall the flavor is there, but any real complexity is masked by the alcohol a bit.

Rich caramel aroma, brown sugar. Pours dark amber with thin tan head. Sharp malt flavor, with caramel and brown sugar, with a creamy malty finish. Smooth on the palate. Overall a decent barley wine, especially for one who doesn’t care so much for barley wine.

22oz bottle shared with LeopoldStoch, my first casked barleywine, and kind of an interesting one. Amber color with strong nose, taste is very much alcoholic and strong, subtle amounts of vanilla with a fair amount of caramel sweets and toffee, again the alcohol was very apparent, this one got better after it warmed and was sipped like after dinner liquer

I purchased this off a recomendation from a friend, and was not upset. I’m usually all about the stouts, but am drinking more and more barleywines. Let me start off by saying, I think this may be the most drinkable 11%+ beer I’ve had. Pours a light brown with plenty of substance floating/suspended in the glass. Tastes very smooth. The bourbon flavor is not as strong as in the heresy. It allows more of the vanilla flavor to come through. Which was very pleasant. I commented several times on how smooth and drinkable this beer was. It is just that smooth. I bought this at a local store and drank it the same night, but believe it was from last years batch, so it was inadvertently aged nicely. For barleywine drinkers and non-barleywine drinkers, I would highly recommend giving this one a chance.